Palatine Turns Back The Clock

September 25, 1991|By Christine Winter.

Frank Holthouse of Des Plaines spent most of last weekend on guard duty in Palatine`s Community Park.

Holthouse, armed and wearing a Rebel uniform, was guarding the Confederate Army`s camp site. After all, the Union Army had its tents pitched just a few hundred feet away, on the other side of the drinking fountain.

Huge cannons boomed and belched white smoke into the clear autumn air above the park football field as the North and South fought it out again, only this time on a battlefield just off Northwest Highway and Palatine Road.

Interspersed among the 1990s spectators, wearing T-shirts and sweatsuits, were real live ``ghosts`` of the Civil War era: women in hoop-skirted dresses with their hair in buns and nets, men in military uniforms and boots. It wasn`t too hard to pick out President Lincoln, as his stovepipe hat bobbed through the crowd ringing the field, which was strewn with the bodies of avid Civil War re-enactors by the time the mock battles ended.

This two-day ``living history`` drama was part of Palatine`s 125th anniversary celebration, and it honored the 37 Palatine men who fought in the War Between the States.

Holthouse, who just joined his regiment, Terry`s Texas Rangers, a few weeks ago, said the Palatine re-enactment was his first outing as a Rebel soldier.

``It`s just a hobby, but the best part is meeting other re-enactors, and discussing battles and history around the campfire,`` said Holthouse, who admits to having been a Civil War buff since he was in grade school.

The Civil War fanatics, who voluntarily travel all over the country during the summer, ask only that communities hosting re-enactments provide powder and primer for their weapons and food that can be cooked over a campfire.

Thanks a lot

Just as we were pulling into a parking space in a long line of about 40 cars illegally parked near the encampment site Saturday afternoon, a very young Palatine assistant police officer rushed over and told us to leave because he was about to ticket the whole row.

Privately, we thought he was kind of a spoilsport, since this was a heavily promoted community event. In any case, we moved. Later we noted that not only were there no tickets on any of the cars, but someone else had pulled into ``our`` spot as soon as we left.

Did he just not like our faces, or was it the absence of a Palatine village sticker on our car?

Cleanup crew

Junk collectors have never exactly been considered the cream of society, but Fox River Grove junkmen Ken Johnson and his son, Wayne, believe the job deserves more status in these days of environmental concern. In fact, they consider themselves the ultimate in recyclers.

But Hoffman Estates, which has an ordinance against unlicensed rubbish collecting, doesn`t agree. The elder Johnson has been stopped by police and ticketed several times in recent weeks while making his rounds.

``Every piece we take out of somebody`s garbage is one less piece of junk in the landfills,`` said Wayne.

Ken, who has been a junkman for 30 years, insists that he and his son never pick up curbside recyclables, athough they often run into teenagers snatching aluminum cans out of recycling bins. He feels part of their service to society comes from the work involved in preparing the stuff they rescue so scrap dealers and recyclers will accept it.

They clean and cut up aluminum storm doors, for instance, and take car batteries and old appliances to special places to be crushed or reused.

``We`ll take old washers and dryers and haul them up to Milwaukee, where there`s a scrap yard that recycles them back into the mainstream of the metal market,`` said Ken. ``That`s better than burying them someplace.``

The Johnsons went before the Hoffman Estates Village Board recently to plead their case, but felt they got brushed off.

However, Gary Duchesne, director of code enforcement, said the board has asked his department to review the ordinance, and he plans to report back in early October.

Fading away

The residents of Hoffman Estates are getting a lot less mayor for their money these days-99 1/2 pounds less, to be exact.

Mayor Michael O`Malley, long known for his considerable girth, said he has dropped the weight in just 12 1/2 weeks as part of a campaign promise. Well, not exactly a campaign promise, but rather ``an idiotic statement`` he said he made some time ago promising Hoffman Estates a ``skinnier mayor by Christmas.``

When asked the secret of his success, O`Malley said, ``You have to be grossly overweight to start out,`` but added that he is simply eating sensibly for a change. His goal: shed 80 more pounds, which should allow him to pass for a tall leprechaun at next year`s St. Pat`s Day parade.